Chapter 28

Three corpses lay on the ground.

They were called corpses because they weren't moving.

Lao Ma opened his mouth wide and stared blankly at this scene.

He had stood up, put down his bowl and chopsticks, walked to the door, and lifted the curtain in less than ten seconds.

He thought he would see a blood-boiling physical competition, but the result was that the three were instantly lying on the ground.

"Xu Sanduo, your hands..."

"Squad Leader, it's fine, they fainted, they'll wake up after lying for a while, their bones and muscles are fine."

Feng Yuxiu walked in, sat on the folding stool, picked up Lao Ma's noodles, and slurped them down in large mouthfuls.

Lao Ma, worried, squatted down and touched each person's nose.

Finding they were still breathing, he stood up, his expression shocked, "Ten seconds, instantly took down three people, although they are three pieces of trash, they are adults after all."

The three were heavy, and Lao Ma felt numb from exhaustion, unable to muster any extra strength to move them, so he just left them there; the temperature in late summer wasn't cold.

Lao Ma was still worried, so he took three quilts from the dormitory and covered them.

He rubbed his brow, fighting the exhaustion that was killing him, and grabbed his rifle, intending to go on guard duty.

Every step he took was extremely difficult and slow.

Having been decadent for so long, the sudden heavy physical labor made his body unable to take it; he had just vomited some sour water.

"Squad Leader, go sleep, I'll go on guard duty tonight."

Feng Yuxiu, full and satisfied, took the rifle from Lao Ma's hand and stepped toward the guard pavilion.

Lao Ma looked at Feng Yuxiu's firm back and smiled.

This soldier had built a grave in his heart.

Inside was deathly silence and desolation, just without a bit of human touch.

Now, a summer grass had grown on the grave.

"Sanduo, call me in the second half of the night, I'll replace you," Lao Ma shouted.

Feng Yuxiu waved his hand and walked into the guard pavilion.

Lao Ma turned and walked into the dormitory, cleaned up, extinguished the remaining fire in the kitchen stove, washed his feet numbly, and climbed onto the bed with difficulty.

But only a few seconds after covering himself with the quilt, he had fallen into a deep sleep.

There were many mosquitoes in late summer; Feng Yuxiu looked sharply into the dark night, his chest rising and falling significantly every ten seconds, and a faint white mist drifted from his mouth.

His body was heating up terrifyingly.

In just half an hour, the fatigue remaining deep in his eyes gradually faded.

Nothing happened that night.

No creature would come to this wilderness to seek death.

Except for the rats on the kitchen rafters, there were only these veterans of the Fifth Squad guarding the pipeline.

The temperature became cold between four and five in the morning, and the three finally woke up.

Li Meng struggled painfully, holding his chin and groaning, "Damn, it's swollen."

Lao Wei closed his eyes and felt the bed beneath him, muttering, "Why is the bed so hard today?"

"Wake up, everyone, how did we fall asleep on the ground?" Xue Lin blinked, looking at the quilt covering him in confusion.

"What exactly happened last night? I only remember standing in front of that loner, and then everything went black," Li Meng recalled, his face looking ugly.

"An ambush! It must be an ambush! Shameless ambush!" Lao Wei was unconvinced, shouting.

"Right, it's an ambush, attacking without even preparing, what kind of man is that? Where is he? Come again!"

Xue Lin climbed up and shouted, but suddenly his legs shook, his face turned pale, and he sat on the ground.

"What are you all shouting about?" Lao Ma walked out wearing a military overcoat.

"Losing face in the wilderness, get back to sleep!"

The three slunk away with their quilts.

Lao Ma looked at the sky and walked to the guard pavilion.

Feng Yuxiu stood straight, like an ancient pine tree.

"Sanduo, I'm really sorry, I said I'd replace you in the second half of the night, I'm too tired, go rest."

After speaking, he took the rifle from Feng Yuxiu's hand.

Feng Yuxiu turned and walked back.

"Good soldier, good soldier," Lao Ma nodded with satisfaction.

Bang!

The dormitory door was pushed open; Feng Yuxiu walked to his bed, took off his shoes, and climbed up.

Li Meng and the other three were planning to take a nap, but suddenly they sniffed.

"Damn, why is it so smelly?" Li Meng muttered in a low voice.

Lao Wei sat up angrily, just wanting to speak, but Xue Lin coughed lightly and pointed to his chin.

Lao Wei immediately stopped talking.

Xue Lin had been prepared; he took the waste paper Li Meng had thrown under the bed, rolled it into a ball, stuffed it into his nose, and continued to sleep.

Three against one and they couldn't win; regardless of whether it was an ambush or not, they couldn't win.

Not provoking this loner was the wise choice.

From five o'clock to eight o'clock, Lao Ma blew the whistle.

"Listen up, from today on, the task is to build the road. Of course, you all promised me last night that you wouldn't quit halfway, I believe you."

Li Meng and the other three stood straight; it seemed that at this moment, they had found their goal.

Lao Ma paused, "You have been decadent for so long that nothing is left except for a tiny bit of personality. Whoever quits, their personality will be completely dead to me."

"Start now, go find stones!"

Lao Ma gave everyone a sack.

And so the road building began.

Li Meng and the other three had no complaints after being taught a lesson by Feng Yuxiu.

But the three were just unconvinced in their hearts.

Since the group army assessment, the entire regiment and company had returned to normal.

It seemed that it was really just a normal assessment.

The Red Third Company's Grassland Fifth Squad had also been forgotten, except for the road building that made Lao Ma excited.

Even watching the snowy television at night was squeezed out of their daily routine.

After eating casually, they climbed onto their beds with bodies like corpses.

One week after building the road, the road was one-third finished.

To be precise, it was three intersecting roads.

Lao Ma specially used red broken bricks to build a large red five-pointed star at the central intersection.

Lao Wei carried the five-star red flag from the dormitory and hung it solemnly on the flagpole.

Calling it a flagpole, it was actually a piece of wood that wasn't very twisted.

"From now on, we can be considered a military unit here; look, the red flag is up," Lao Ma's face was a degree darker than a month ago, and the exhaustion on his face couldn't be hidden.

But his tone and the spirit in his eyes were exceptionally bright.

Li Meng, Lao Wei, and Xue Lin looked up at the red flag.

Under the hot wind, the red flag fluttered in the wind.

"Squad Leader, why do I feel a bit lost?" Li Meng lowered his head and said.

Lao Ma patted his shoulder, "Find something to do. You've always intended to be a writer, right? The regiment is recruiting clerks recently, and my face is still worth a few favors, I'll help you run for it."

"Lao Wei, you have two more years of compulsory service, and your cooking is quite good; consider being a cook."

"Xue Lin..."

Lao Ma sighed; he really couldn't think of any strengths for Xue Lin.

"Sanduo, the group army assessment results might come out in the next few days. I know you are the Soldier King who broke two records in the entire military, and you've seen the mess of the Grassland Fifth Squad."

"We haven't taught you anything these past few months, but for the sake of me being your Squad Leader, I'll entrust you with this: this is the military, everyone is a comrade, put down the extremely cold and high mountain in your heart."